how well did he do getting things done with a polarized environment? >> that is a terrific question. it is hard to answer, if part of the answer is the following, when lyndon johnson became majority leader of the senate in 1955 the senate was and has been for decades, let's put it that way, same mess, hard to believe, the same dysfunctional mess and it is today. bills couldn't get past. the power in front of the president wasn't a party, republicans against democrats, half of the democrats in the senate, southern democrats who were just as conservative as can be imagined on civil rights and everything else and in that year, 1965 if i have the number right, 16 great standing committees of the senate, republicans were chairman of nine of them and senior committee post was stacked with them. they stopped every president because no one seems to realize it. and when they realize the midwestern republicans were on the same side, and anyone got a major domestic bill through congress. and the senate becomes the center of governmental energy and creativity, he